The Arizona Public Interest Research Group Education Fund recently joined with Transportation for America to advocate for a five-point plan to move us in a new direction. We need to:

• Build to compete: We must catch and pass competitors in Asia and Europe by modernizing and expanding rail and transit networks to reduce oil dependence and connect the metro regions that are the engines of the modern economy.

• Invest in a clean, green recovery: Our state and nation will need cleaner vehicles and new fuels, but we also must support the cleanest forms of transportation – modern public transit, walking and biking – and energy-efficient, sustainable development.

• Fix what’s broken: Before building new roads to be maintained, we must restore our crumbling highways, bridges and transit systems.

• Stop wasteful spending: Re-evaluate projects in the pipeline to eliminate those with little economic return that could deepen, rather than relieve, our oil dependence.

• Save money: Provide more transit options that are affordable and efficient, while helping people to avoid high gas costs and traffic congestion.

Save taxpayer dollars by asking the private developers who reap real estate rewards from new rail stations and transit lines to contribute toward that service.

Acting on this five-point agenda has the potential to support 6.7 million jobs building $240 billion in ready-to-go rail and rapid bus projects in 78 metro areas; 14.8 million jobs over the next five years repairing crumbling bridges, roadways and transit systems for a $512 billion investment; reduce oil consumption; save money for our families; and help communities with growth and congestion.

This archive contains all the stories that appeared on the Tucson Citizen's website from mid-2006 to June 1, 2009.

In 2010, a power surge fried a server that contained all of videos linked to dozens of stories in this archive. Also, a server that contained all of the databases for dozens of stories was accidentally erased, so all of those links are broken as well. However, all of the text and photos that accompanied some stories have been preserved.

For all of the stories that were archived by the Tucson Citizen newspaper's library in a digital archive between 1993 and 2009, go to Morgue Part 2